video | un: haltham

[aprescoup]

( Friends, family, travellers: you might remember this friendly speaker, eyes bright and wild while blood's drenched the better half of his grinning face. )

Hello? This is Haaaaaaltham. How do you do? Me... I'm — ( The pendant briefly slips from his hands, showing glimpses of Haltham and a rolling, feral dead creature he subdues with a final snap of its neck. Patiently, after recovering the pendant: ) Fine. You, um... you're fine, yeah? Also? You're good people. Good people.

So I told m'friend, I told her... said, me, these are good people, and they will help you. ( Another pause, as a rabid goat jumps over Haltham's head to crush a dead man. Behind him, rows of burning homes distinctly different from the snowed-under peaks of Haltham's native Sa-Hareth. ) Goat says hi. Good goat.

Now... now, my friend, yeah? She's... last we met, she wasn't that, she was... riding hard. In the fancy magic city. And them others coming after, her old friends. One of them. Only... now she's not feeling friendly with the Brothers no more. Now, she's wanting to be friends with us. All of us. Cause she's... in a bit o'trouble with that one. The mean one. The one that brays like animals... and... that's no nice way to treat a lady. Me, I always thought... you got a lady friend, you treat'er well.

She's got to stay in Krrrr-Croak-Weeeey-who? Couple o'days. Call it... three? Four weeks? But she doesn't want no finding, when the animal comes. And she's a little... slimmer in her strengths. Til the old man mountain breathes fire again. So, you know. If you can be nice to her, our huntress. She'll make it worth everyone's while. Yours... mine... ( Another undead creature assaults his back, only to solidify in pure ice within half a heartbeat. Haltham points behind himself: ) His.

What do you say? ( All at once, warmth wanes from Haltham's voice, hollowing it: ) ThIn K. Th ErE aRe BenEfitS o F Gi vInG HER tHre E weEks o F shElt Er. WhaT Do YoU saY?



( ooc: — cast an IC vote until 23:59 GMT on 2 April if the party should hide and protect the Huntress for a few weeks in Ke-Waihu, during the Beastmaster's upcoming visit

— new characters can assume party NPCs Asgeirr or Hatisse have shared told them about the Huntress, Haltham/Anurr and Beastmaster

— feel free to spam/threadjack/discuss IC opinions in this post — Haltham will respond sporadically; no input from the Huntress at this time! )

Comments

un: yiling laozu | audio

[weifinder]

Give her your pendant to contact us directly, Anurr. There are no friends here, and you oblige yourself to no guarantees for her--for yourself, only the normal misleading of any century's politics.

( ooc: there's not going to be huntress input, as i read, so this is just what he'd be asking, not me expecting otherwise! )

[aprescoup]

Can't. She's not with me. Reckon she's... s hY.

[weifinder]

Ah.

Where are you right now?

[aprescoup]

More westward than you. Slower marchin'... we're more.

[weifinder]

Yet you're aiming the same direction, the same eastward drive?

[aprescoup]

East... not where you're at. No point to it. You don't, uh... no going where the enemy's strong. No point to it, ah?

[weifinder]

Mm, not without seeking the conflict, and no. Why go when they're strong?

Which is why I wonder: does she seek to hide in a place the one of the beasts would find unlikely for her to be cowering?

[aprescoup]

She's wantin' to be by the mountain when it blows. Sentimental, I reckon.

[weifinder]

What makes that sentimental for her?

[aprescoup]

Don't know'er that well. Keep her at your home, you might learn.

[weifinder]

My chilly lord of death, you can keep any one individual close, and still know nothing of what you should of them. Considering your current demeanour, it's a lesson you've used well before.

Where's your white bear?

[aprescoup]

You miss'im?

private/voice

[beitangmoran]

I suppose you did catch the mention that the volcano is going to erupt very soon.

same, ongoing

[weifinder]

Yes, and while I've not, ah, witnessed any such things myself, I was under the impression those are rather dramatic, damaging, and also inclined towards fires?

So she comes, to use... that power. Or he does. Or they both do.

Re: same, ongoing

[beitangmoran]

The volcano is also linked to the fortune tellers' powers... and potentially his power.

[weifinder]

Is that so? Due to the nature of its elemental strength or something else... well, I don't know that it strictly matters, but it is a powerful part of the natural world, and power attracts like, and those who'd have it.

Invigorating for both, or something which might be tempered, or taken.

[beitangmoran]

Most probably, yes. I tried to press for more answers on the nature of the link btween the volcano and the Beastmaster's power, but I could not get any.

audio. private.

[inferus]

A valuable request to make though I doubt it will be answered.

What are your thoughts on this?

( they are the two most affected by the huntress' presence. wrath can ask emilia to stay near him, to lock him in a circle again when he feels the effects become too strong. he sees little benefit to not allowing her 'sanctuary' even if wrath does not and will never see her as an ally. sometimes it is best to keep one's enemies closer than friends. )

private.

[weifinder]

I don't like it. Though I don't disbelieve that she's at cross purpose with the one who lords over beasts, my sense is... she seeks hiding her to gain the strength that I'm inclined to believe the Beastmaster usually harvests.

( a pause. he is deeply unsettled, which is never enough to prevent him, in so many things. and yet. consideration?

because there's no one here with the heart to stop him in any way that doesn't leave him drowning. )

I would ask the Merchant. Not for anything so considerate as permission, but to see how much of this he already knows, or suspects. And how much he expects we'll destroy.

private ->

[inferus]

I am uncertain as to why she would ask our permission to grant her sanctuary. We've no control over these lands. Surely, she could head there without first asking us. Yet she asks, pretends to want our agreement and to offer something in return. If we deny her, we gain nothing but risk nothing. If we accept, we may learn more about her- enough to destroy or defend against her, but the risk is clear.

( He rolls his shoulders back. They are the two most at risk for acceptance. )

The Merchant's desire is to see the Undead destroyed, but I do see the value in asking him regardless. The choice must be ours. He would sacrifice all of us to be free of the Undead.

I cannot say I blame him.

[weifinder]

He's already made that transparent. Anurr in his own actions--I wonder. The other creature in hers, seeking sanctuary and then gain in the lands of another lord--I wonder.

( but he's not happy about it, and that... doesn't matter. it never really does. )

We've needed some means of testing wards to resist callings by those such as her. It grants us that, whatever else follows.

[inferus]

Emilia is capable of powerful wards. If necessary, she potentially could help you as well.

( They're enough to contain the devil at the very least, but they may need to be modified in this particular case.

Still there's a reason Wrath asked before making any definitive vote. They are the two who are most affected by the Huntress' presence, who experienced her influence before. )

I have not entirely decided yet. I do not want to be controlled again, but at least in this instance, we will be aware and prepared for her approach.

[weifinder]

Mm, and the awareness of the lord of beasts coming sometime within the next three seven days.

[inferus]

If not one undead then the other, yes.

I have stayed my vote for the time being. We are similar, you and I. ( and so wrath wishes to understand his opinion and feelings on it all. wrath values choice over all the rest, and he would prefer not to vote for an option that takes choice away from another. at the same time, he will give what he can to help protect him from losing that choice. )

[weifinder]

In all likelihood, two of them.

I don't like her coming. I don't like this pretense, which it is, genuine or not.

But I don't deny the practicality in having one closer, to learn better how to work against her. Anurr's particular call, much like Unhalad's, aren't ones I bow before. I've hungered, and survived. I've touched vengeance, as was owed by filial piety, but it has no compelling taste to it.

( a pause, because when it comes down to it, they both need a way for this to... not. not claim them, not sway them, not take them from themselves or pitch them against those they care for.

... not that he's as powerful as he suspects wrath is, but their contexts are so different from what he gleams as to make that irrelevant. )

I need to understand how to prevent this Huntress from what she does.